Data visualization helps viewers better understand the significance of data by placing it in visual context. For example, patterns, trends and correlations that might go undetected from text-based data analysis can be exposed and more easily recognized through data visualization. Data visualization also provides analytics more easily allowing viewers to grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns relatively quickly and without laborious computation. Furthermore, with interactive visualizations, a user may “drill down” into the data (e.g., charts and graphs) and view additional detail, thereby interactively changing the displayed data and the processing thereof. Data visualization tools go beyond the standard charts and graphs used in spreadsheets by displaying data in more sophisticated ways such as infographics, dials and gauges, geographic maps, heat maps, and detailed bar, pie and fever charts. As will be appreciated, visualizations of data can take many forms across many areas, and may be more useful in different forms to different organizations.
However, the only tools that allow for the creation of customized visualizations require significant amounts of programming. Furthermore, in order to modify a visualization of master data based on its corresponding metadata, an information technology (IT) expert or other administrator must adjust code and/or programming associated with the metadata. In addition, metadata is typically displayed using one of several techniques, for example, column based metadata with a short data preview, a query panel, and more recently through facets. However, none of these techniques provide instant visual validation on how metadata should behave from a semantic standpoint such as whether data is an attribute or a measure, an aggregation method of a measure, formatting, and the like. Additionally, users want to see the underlying master data and be able to perform common visual validation without requiring the IT department.
Throughout the drawings and the detailed description, unless otherwise described, the same drawing reference numerals will be understood to refer to the same elements, features, and structures. The relative size and depiction of these elements may be exaggerated or adjusted for clarity, illustration, and/or convenience.